Apparel Holding files for IPO to take Vince apparel unit public

NEW YORK, United States - Apparel Holding Corp, controlled by Sun Capital Partners Inc, filed with U.S. regulators on Tuesday to take its Vince luxury apparel company public in an initial public offering valued at up to $200 million.

Apparel Holding was formed to hold the assets of Kellwood Holding LLC, which was acquired by Sun Capital in 2012.

After the offering, Apparel Holding will be renamed to Vince Holding Corp and its business will consist solely of the business relating to the Vince clothing brand, the New York-based company told the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus. ()

Kellwood Holding will continue to own the trademarks and names necessary to operate other brands that are under Apparel Holding, including Rebecca Taylor, Sag Harbor, My Michelle, XOXO and David Meister.

The luxury goods market grew at a compound annual growth rate of about 6 percent between 1996 and 2012, with estimated sales of about $260 billion in 2012, according to Bain Studies.

The global personal luxury goods market is expected to grow 4 to 5 percent in 2013, and at a 5 to 6 percent compounded annual growth rate over the next few years.

Apparel Holding's net sales were $363.9 million in six months ended August 3, up about 14 percent from a year earlier. The company's losses shrunk to $25.6 million in that period from $81.2 million a year earlier.

Goldman, Sachs & Co, Baird, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, JP Morgan, UBS Investment Bank, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Stifel and William Blair were underwriting the IPO, the company said in the filing.

The filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their expected price.

The company intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VNCE".

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.